Essay on Review of Freakonomics

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Review of Freakonomics
This chapter's main idea is that the study of economics is the study of incentives. We find a differentiation between economic incentives, social incentives and moral incentives. Incentives are described in a funny way as "means of urging people to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing", and in this chapter we find some examples public school teachers in Chicago, sumo wrestling in Japan, take care center in Israel and Paul Feldman's bagel business  of how incentives drive people and most of the time the conventional wisdom turns to be "wrong" when incentives are in place.…show more content…

As we can see this happens to the government which such policies as the ones illustrated in the public school in Chicago ones.
From this chapter I mainly learnt that incentives are "the cornerstone of modern life"  they drive our actions more than we notice, even unconsciously, they are there, and it would be useful if we are aware of this, in order to predict others behavior and probably would be useful too in negotiation.
Chapter 2: How is the Ku Klux Klan like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?
This chapter is very important from my point of view, since it talks about the importance of information in all ways of life and particularly how information means power. The asymmetries of information are a widespread problem even nowadays and we find it the most in the low class society obviously because of the lack of education.
While reading about asymmetric information I thought of lawyers in Mexico, when they use the misinformation about laws as an advantage to abuse people and get more money from them. I can think of really lots of examples about this and each of them illustrate the importance of information, not only to have power, but to prevent ourselves

These theories were not only logical, they were also encouraging, for they attributed the crime drop to specific and recent human initiatives, showing us that we had the power to stop it the whole time."
Author Steven D. Levitt defines Freakonomics as ?the science exploring the hidden side of everything.? In this example, Levitt does just that. Instead of just accepting the conventional wisdom of the time, that the drop in crime rate could be attributed to an innovative police force, a good…

Review of Freakonomics
This chapter's main idea is that the study of economics is the study of incentives. We find a differentiation between economic incentives, social incentives and moral incentives. Incentives are described in a funny way as "means of urging people to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing", and in this chapter we find some examples public…

the result was Freakonomics, a book that claims to explore the hidden side of everything, using real-life examples such as studies and polls conducted by Levitt to explain how economics is everywhere, that economics is how the world really functions. Through everything from analyzing the inner thought processes of real-estate agents and crack dealers, to predicting the next popular baby names, Levitt and Dubner guide readers to think differently, ask questions, and to use “Freakonomics” in their daily…

at math, I don’t know a lot of econometrics, and I also don’t know how to do theory.” This marks right away Lennits to a different approach of ways to get his audience attention, he steps outside of the boundaries most people in society live by. Freakonomics, is a book that really triggered my imagination as a kept on reading, I really loved it. I myself started asking myself a great amount of questions that I had never looked at before. Especially toward the end that he asks the importance of ones…

numbers and graphs Levitt takes anomalies within the data to reveal truths obscured. It’s Levitt’s sociological take on economics that has set him apart from his peers with his heavy focus on incentives, choices, and the consequences they have. Freakonomics mirrors Levitt’s method since it’s a collection of stories he has uncovered or read, and the core economic principles are hidden within each story throughout the book, sometimes even in plain sight like how there are exactly as many chapters as…

In Levitt and Dubner’s novel, Freakonomics, they deal with the sensitive subject of abortions in chapter four. During this section, Levitt and Dubner are purposing that the drop of crime is not because of the many popular ideas they address but instead because of abortions becoming legalized. Providing proof to their argument, they list out all the popular ideas that many people believe to be the cause of the drop in crime and then one by one explain why these ideas could not fit into the massive…

Freakonomics Book Report
In chapter 1, Levitt and Dubner describe how many people in different cultures and walks of life, which are otherwise inclined to be honest, find subtle ways of cheating to advance their position or increase monetary awards when incentives are strong enough. The authors define an incentive as “a means of urging people to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing,” and identify three varieties of incentives. Economic incentives are those, which a person responds to…

Freakonomics Chapter 1 Summary
In chapter one of Freakonomics, Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt describe how when incentives are strong enough, many usually honest people from different walks of life will cheat in order to gain financially or climb the ladder in their careers. The authors define an incentive as “a means of urging people to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing.” This chapter covers three varieties of incentives: Economic, Social and Moral. Economic incentives motivate people…

the main reason both groups of people try to explain economics in simpler terms is because they both want to make economics accessible to the common person who may not completely understand economics.
Another way that my economics class and the Freakonomics book are similar may be a little bit of a stretch, but it works anyway. Both things like to compare completely unlike things that you would never think to pair together in real life. For example, when I first started to learn about supply and demand…

Ms. Remmey
Freakonomics Assignment August 2015
Argument: What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?
Based on Paul Feldman’s findings, the authors of Freakonomics argue that a person, who is faced with an efficient way to cheat…